Facial fat transfers

When we age our underlying collagen and elastic begin to break down and wrinkles emerge. We also tend to lose some subcutaneous fat on our faces. This brings about a haggard, hollow, or even skeletal look. Fat grafting is a natural approach to restoring a youthful look to the face that does not involve removal of skin, stretching the skin, or the risk of an unnatural looks that can result from a face lift. Fat grafting can be combined with a face lift, if that is what you need; some surgeons are also performing stand-alone stem cell facelifts that involve fat grafting. The use of autologous materials, which is essentially tissue taken from one part of the body and moved to another, is not a novel idea and has been used widely in treating many serious conditions or defects due to disease, trauma or birth defect.

Aging of the face is commonly caused by three elements: laxity of skin tissues caused by gravity, skin changes such as wrinkles and pigmentation caused by age and years of sun exposure, and the loss of facial volume that once created youthful curvature. That loss of volume hastens the look of aging and can prematurely date a person due to facial hollows. These areas are commonly observed under the eyes, below the cheekbones, and around the mouth, but also occur along the jawline, temples, brow and forehead. To correct a fatigued and often emaciated or harsh look, a plastic surgeon trained in facial aesthetics works to restore youth to the face. The face can appear dramatically younger by restoring volume to the under eye area, treating local wrinkles, creating a soft transition between the lower eyelid and the full heart-shaped cheek region, and filling the deep grooves around the mouth. Buckingham of Buckingham Center for Facial Plastic Surgery is an Austin, Texas-based practitioner who expertly performs facial fat transfer for patients. Areas of the body for fat harvesting may be marked out.

Fat transfers have been used for more than years to fill in facial flaws such as hollowed cheeks, sunken eyes or indented scars, but what is old is new again. Today, new fat transfer techniques also known as fat grafting are used to augment many other areas of the body, including the buttocks, biceps, triceps, calf muscles, breasts, hands and penis. Many surgeons are also promoting stem cell face lifts, a fancy name for fat injections to the face.

We use cookies to offer you the best experience. To learn more, please see our cookie policy. This can make our cheeks look rather sunken and the whole face a little empty. A similar appearance is evident if one loses a significant amount of weight.